Additional Info

Nearby Theaters

The Park Theater was opened by a Mr. and Mrs. Nicholl about 1915. The theater was closed and dismantled about 1923, and the building was converted into a shoe store. Today it serves as an office for an attorney.

An article about the Park Theater in the Amherst News-Times of June 13, 2000, can be found at this link. Advertisements for the Park Theater can be found in issues of the same newspaper during the late 1910s-early 1920s.

According to a very brief item on p. 126 of this local history of Amherst, the first motion picture venue in Amherst was at 134 Park Avenue, but does not indicate the name or provide any dates. It might have been this theater since street re-numbering did occur in Amherst over the years, but the item also indicates that it was later a restaurant which does not fit the history of the building in the article posted by Joe above.

This Amherst local history page also shows an ad marked “June 6, 1909” for an Amuse-U Theatre in Amherst, which might also be this theater. There are at least three other theaters that were named Amuse U or a variation here on CT, all dating to around 1910 or thereabouts so all of them were probably nickleodeons or silent movie theaters that did not make it into the sound era.